Hoping Shopify sees this again. So frustrating to have things showing as out of stock just so we can keep proper accounting reports available (as required by the government).
Topic summary
Shopify currently does not support archiving individual product variants—only entire products can be archived. This limitation frustrates merchants who need to retain discontinued or temporarily unavailable variants for reporting and accounting purposes without displaying them to customers.
Current Workarounds:
- Set variant inventory to zero, making it show as unavailable (requires custom coding to hide from storefront)
- Clone the product, delete unwanted variants from each version, then archive the clone (cumbersome process)
- Use third-party apps like “Drodi: Hide SoldOut Products” (requires paid subscription and setup fees)
Community Concerns:
- Deleting variants removes purchase history needed for tax/accounting compliance
- Out-of-stock variants clutter product pages and appear unprofessional
- Manufacturers frequently change product specifications, creating outdated variant listings
- The issue has persisted for years with thousands of merchants seeking this feature
Status: The discussion remains unresolved with no official Shopify response. Multiple users suggest submitting formal feature requests through Shopify support rather than relying on forum visibility.
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